Is anyone with insight into Toronto's decision making process (specifically those who have already been accepted or waitlisted) willing to answer the following questions? a) has your online application status changed?, b) how many are being accepted and are on the waitlist?, c) is there still hope for those who have heard nothing? Thanks.

I'm not applying during this cycle, but considering doing so within the near future. I'm 45 now and realize that I would essentially be finishing a PhD in philosophy for my own satisfaction, not because I expect to have some sort of awesome career.

The fairly short version of my bio: I started off in a PhD program in anthropology, almost made it through, but hit a lot of snags (health *and* financial) that kept me from finishing. Then I pretty much had to find work... which included supporting my wife (older than me) while she finished her PhD. She finally got a relevant job in Big Science at 51. No kids. I'm a low-level IT person right now--relatively employable during good times, but no great shakes in bad times. I'm lucky to be working as a contractor at Microsoft for the moment.

Through it all, I never wanted anything other than to be an academic. At this point, even if I could find a way to turn it into a kind of hobby after doing a PhD (e.g. write papers &c while continuing to work outside academia) I could live with that. Of course more would be better, but as said above, I understand the realpolitik of already being more than halfway through my life.

My interests are a little hard to pigeonhole, but a short way of framing them is that while I was still in anthropology, I was getting more interested in the philosophical underpinnings of my particular area than in the area itself. My area was psych anthro, so my interests in philosophy cluster around mind, cog sci, language, and so forth, especially as these tie back into philosophy of social science-type topics. Since anthropology borrows heavily from the kind of stuff touched by continental philosophy, I'm fine with being in dialogue with that--but I always wanted to find ways to ground those tendencies in anthro theory in something that looks a lot more like analytic philosophy. In the LSU thread several pages back, someone mentioned John Protevi--loosely speaking, my goal for a long time was more or less to be Protevi in reverse, i.e. starting with things like cog sci and neuro and reaching over toward stuff like Deleuze and Foucault. That's still an interest but I have acquired more interest in traditional M&E topics as I've gone along. I also have a fairly deep interest in semiotics, although I think there's a fair amount of junk that appropriates that mantle.

(Oh, and I understand that I'd have to start with an MA-only program, since I have close to zero track record in philosophy other than my own reading.)

Anyway. I feel kind of all--well, partly--dressed up with no place to go. Even if I wasn't pretty old, still in debt, et cetera, it's still not even clear to me where would be a good place for me to try to get my academic life restarted. Is my best bet at this point going to be trying to work on my own somehow? My impression is that it's really hard to get much attention for your work if you're outside the academic system, not to mention the fact that you need that community to keep you on track and out of intellectual tarpits. But fundamentally, this is just a dream that has never let go. The idea that I might never be able to finish is a bitter prospect. I don't want to be the intellectual equivalent of that guy from high school who can't get over not being the star quarterback anymore, but then again my desires are what they are.

I'd love to hear from anyone who can weigh in on any of the above matters, especially from people over 40 who are involved in the current application cycle. What are your stories? How does being older affect what you want to study, what you expect to do with the degree when it's done, and so forth?

I get the impressions most people here are pretty young (I am, too). If you go to the grad cafe, there are lots of successful older folks. One of them has a blog (http://unlikelygrad.wordpress.com/). There's a couple that had kids, raised em, and applied (and got into) PhD programs this season. I'd advise talking to them.

Now, as for philosophy and your particular situation... yeah, probably an MA first, or at least several courses in philosophy as a special student. You could shoot for a PhD program or two, though: if you don't need to rely on getting an academic job, you could go for unranked places that still suit your interests and so on. I don't think this would be especially difficult.

Can your wife fully financially support you, and is she willing to? That's the main thing here. You're going to be (probably) paying for an MA, and getting peanuts for a PhD stipend, and you're already in debt.

I figured it might make sense for me to make a post about Canadian MA programs instead of sitting around, moping about how nobody is saying anything about the schools I'm interested in. So, my current situation:

Two years ago a friend of mine didn't hear anything from berkeley until they called him on April 15th saying that he got in off the waitlist (FYI: April 15th is the day when you have to officially accept/deny all offers, so that is also when all the waitlist movement happens).

So it is possible that that person could be you this year, unless they have gotten better about notifying regarding waitlist spots.

How is Rutgers hiring so many people in this economy? Even the Ivies are making serious cutbacks across the board, and Rutgers is gobbling up people left and right. This fall they hired Katalin Balog, Branden Fitelson, Jonathan Schaffer, and Susanna Schellenberg, right after hiring Andy Egan and Thony Gillies from Michigan. I predict Rutgers will be #1 on the next Leiter Report.

I know, it's ridiculous, isn't it? I mean, I think it's great, but it's incredible. Of course I'm biased, because I went to Rutgers for undergrad. One thing that helps to explain it is that Rutgers as an undergraduate institution overall isn't that good, and their philosophy department is definitely their best department. That's their claim to fame. So the last department that is going to experience severe budget cuts is philosophy. Also, Rutgers is a huge state school with a ton of money and probably a rather large endowment, for a state school. They have thirty-something thousand students on all three campuses combined, they are *the* major university in New Jersey (aside from Princeton), and they're one of the oldest universities in the country (I think the 6th or 7th oldest, something like that). So they have lots of money, and unlike a school like Princeton, which has many top department that all have more or less equal claims to funding (other things being equal), the philosophy department is the best thing Rutgers has going for it in terms of academics, so they want to keep it as strong as possible. So that's how they've made all these great hires recently. I also wouldn't be surprised if they surpassed NYU on the next PGR, depending on whether NYU makes any big hires in the next year or whatever it is.

WTF is up with these things. I hate them. When I get a rejection via email it's a 2-second ordeal... "Fuck you [school name]", *hit delete*. But something about actual paper rejections pisses me off. You can hold it, feel it, look at the brightly-colored school name. I got so angry with one I tried to eat it -- did not taste good. Fuck! I've gotten so many of them. I'm certain the mail man thinks I'm a loser. I bet he wonders every day where I'll get rejected from next. Anyhow, this paper stuff is bullshit. That is all.

1. Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions. Things not in our control are body, property, reputation, command, and, in one word, whatever are not our own actions.

The things in our control are by nature free, unrestrained, unhindered; but those not in our control are weak, slavish, restrained, belonging to others. Remember, then, that if you suppose that things which are slavish by nature are also free, and that what belongs to others is your own, then you will be hindered. You will lament, you will be disturbed, and you will find fault both with gods and men. But if you suppose that only to be your own which is your own, and what belongs to others such as it really is, then no one will ever compel you or restrain you. Further, you will find fault with no one or accuse no one. You will do nothing against your will. No one will hurt you, you will have no enemies, and you not be harmed.

Several pages ago, one or two of us discussed the Young Scholars Program at the Kierkegaard Library of St. Olaf College. According to the website, decisions will be made on March 1st, which is Monday. This has crept up on me!

Anyone else apply to the program? What are your interests in relation to SK? My proposal was related to the recent retrieval of SK as a political resource, and I'm hoping to connect this with Agamben, eventually.

I didn't apply to the program you mention above, bit Kierkegaard is among my favorite philosophers. Beside the fact that I can appreciate his works on stictly literary grounds, I find his writings fascinating for three reasons. First, I'm interested in the influence his thought exercises in other favorite philosophers of mine: Heidegger, Foucault, and Sartre, for example. Second, I'm fascinating by his unabashed "irrationalism" concerning his religious beliefs. Finally, his critique of the Christendom of his day is surprisingly relevant to our own social times.